OK. I was bored to death. Got an office on the 5th floor with a desk, a chair and two chairs in front. The detectives, generally the two partners, bring in their reports which I look over, drinking coffee and smoking my Luckey Strikes. I read, the cops wait, I ask questions if needed and they respond. I choose what charges to file, like robbery or burglary, sex crimes, homicide… whatever the case calls for,. The detectives take the paper work to secretaries who type up the charges, they bring it back to me. I sign the complaint and the detectives go to the Court Clerk’s Office and file it and the case is set for arraignment and that ends my part in the process. Fun huh? Now when I say no case or take it to the City Attorney if it is not serious enough to file as a felony, such as an assault with a deadly weapon, like a knife or razor and just a few stiches, I will send it out to be charged by the City Attorney as a misdemeanor. Anything over five stitches, I would file as a felony and the DA’s Office would proceed as a felony, unless there were aggravating facts or a bad rap sheet, which would go to the City Attorney to prosecute.
There were a couple of incidents I do remember worth mentioning. Two detectives brought in a cheap burglary report. I thought it needed more work, particularly witness interviews to see if there was enough evidence The cops and I got into a pretty hairy shouting match as they wanted a filing right then. One cop actually put his hand on his revolver in a threatening manner and all three of us went to my supervisor’s office. Words were spoken in an unfriendly manner and I was backed up. They did not come back, and out of curiosity I checked with our filing people, and sure enough, the detectives went behind my back the next day and by “DA-shopping,” got one of the other DAs to file the complaint without telling him it was assigned to me. Followed that trail and learned the case was dismissed at the preliminary hearing as the witness I wanted interviewed exonerated the defendant Strange that one of the detective’s uncles was the defense attorney. Oh Well that was LA.
I should mention that theLAPD under Chief Parker (who the Parker Center was named after,) and the LA DA were not at this early time on the best of terms. My impression was they just did not trust each other. I am talking about the Brass, not the detectives. Almost all of the detectives were straight shooters, no pun intended, and damn smart, some a hell of a lot smarter than me. This comparison will be presented later when I get into the meat of some of my cases, but we’re not there yet. It seems there was a killing of Johnny Stepenato, believed to be somehow connected to organized crime as a minor player. Allegedly, he was stabbed to death by the daughter of a very, very important movie star, Lana Turner. (You may have never heard about Lana, but in the early days, she was gorgeous, a beautiful blonde and big box office at the time. (look her up in google, lots there.) Stepenato was Lana’s boyfriend around that time. Well, instead of calling the police, the most famous defense attorney in LA, Jerry Geisler, was summoned to the scene, and after meeting with Lana Turner, rather than calling the LAPD to come to the scene to investigate, the DA was contacted. The DA investigators, after meeting with those at the scene, then called in the LA Police, but by that time all the LA cops got was a story how Lana’s daughter was attacked by Johnny and she and no one else, specifically Lana Turner, had anything to do with the killing. Thus, no case was ever filed, because there was no evidence to refute the self-defense claim. The movie industry was the major industry at the time and the studios supported various political jobs and their Stars were valuable box office property. I am not saying I have proof of any shenanigans, but the feud between the LADA and Chief Parker seemed to arise around that time
Another incident comes to mind. One day, things were slow and I was just waiting for my next interview with detectives. Then a woman about in her forties comes into my office with two detectives and she is introduced to me as follows: “OK, tell Mr. Schulman your story which she starts to do as follows:
Well, she says, I met this woman and we became very close and great friends. This woman confided in me and I with her. She told me she was in love and had a relationship with a beautician for a long time, but the beautician decided to go back to her husband and as a result my friend was suffering and wanted the husband eliminated. So a plan was developed to purchase a revolver, disguise theirselves in Halloween masks, go to where they were living and shoot the husband. So I went there, rang the doorbell, the husband answered and I said trick or treat and shot him and we left. He died from my gunshot. I could not live with what I did, so I turned myself in.I filed a 1st degree premeditated, lying-in-wait murder charge which was punishable by death, or life in prison charge and we had an understanding that if she would testify against the other woman as accomplice to the murder, she may get some kind of a deal Actually I let her know I would not be in charge of the case once it gets to court and I could not guarentee a deal as that would be up to the Deputy handling the court proceedings.
Well after she let my office the Deputy, a long time member of the office, came into my office wanting to know why she was there with the two detectives as he formerly dated her. Small World.
She ended up pleading to murder 2nd, which carried 15 to life.
Well, I finished my stint in Complaints after about one year and was assigned as the 3rd deputy in one of the Felony trial Courts. Three deputies to a Court, the boss deputy, known as the Calendar Deputy as I expalined in an earlier blog, a senior trial deputy and the third, me, as a trial Deputy. I think my immediate boss, Calendar Deputy was Sam Meyerson and a very nice guy. (Sam later was assigned the Patty Hurst case in connection with armed robberies by her kidnappers of the Symbionese Army, after her deals in San Francisco, which is a fascinating story by itself. Google Patty Hurst for the story.)
Now is the beginning of the development of my expertise…..
Marshall
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